Radial rolling bearings that can be divided are widely used in industry to provide low-friction and low-wear support for machine parts. In divisible radial rolling bearings, clamping rings are placed around inner ring segments of the bearing, e.g. inner ring segments in the form of half shells, in order to fix them on a shaft. All the other components of the radial rolling bearing, in particular the outer ring and the rolling element cage, are likewise embodied in such a way that they are radially divisible or segmented, thus enabling them to be mounted around a continuous shaft in a simple manner. As a result, an involved process of pulling the shaft out of machine parts arranged upstream or downstream in terms of drive engineering is advantageously eliminated. Divided radial rolling bearings of this kind are used in applications in which replacement of the bearings would otherwise lead to a high outlay on disassembly due to the removal of the adjoining machine parts. Moreover, faulty bearings can be replaced in a simple manner with divisible radial rolling bearings.
In the case of known radially divisible radial rolling bearings, the clamping rings are arranged on the left-hand and right-hand sides on retaining rims of the inner ring, thereby considerably increasing the axial overall length of said bearings in comparison with radial rolling bearings that are not divisible and, for example, making it more difficult, if not indeed impossible, to retrofit said bearings in old bearing locations or bearing housings, which generally have limited installation space.
Divisible self-aligning roller bearings which, in addition to the primary bearing function, allow compensation of angular misalignment of up to several degrees in relation to adjacent machine parts, e.g. engines, transmissions, clutches or the like, are furthermore also known. In addition to easy repair of an old bearing in the case of faults or maintenance, divisible self-aligning roller bearings therefore additionally allow compensation of machine parts which are not fully aligned.
DE 1 958 363 U has disclosed a self-aligning roller bearing with a divided inner ring, which can be clamped on a shaft by means of undivided tapered rings. One disadvantage of this known embodiment is the complexity of mounting the inner ring on the shaft, which is possible only by supplying oil under high pressure into a hole in one of the tapered rings. Moreover, an undivided standard bearing can only be replaced with a lot of effort by means of this technical solution since the undivided clamping rings cannot subsequently be pushed onto the bearing shaft, i.e. not without previously removing or pulling out the bearing shaft.
It is therefore the underlying object of the invention to propose a radially divided radial rolling bearing which has a reduced axial overall length in comparison with known embodiments.